Live from Swaziland ... it's Saturday morning!

On May 31st, 2012 the Maxwell family boarded a plane and moved to Swaziland to live at Project Canaan. I hope to update my blog on Saturday mornings and share, as honestly as I can, the highs and lows of our life in Africa. We are living on a farm in a remote part of this tiny Kingdom and are serving the community as well as the orphans and vulnerable children of the nation. The 365 day count down started on June 1st, 2011, but the real journey begins now. Thanks for joining us.

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Saturday, August 1, 2015

Reading the newspaper in Swaziland is shocking, heart
breaking and disheartening MOST of the time.Rarely is there a story of good news, good people or hope.

It is rare that a day goes by where there is not a news report
of a rape.Rape is so common in
Swaziland that the newspapers really only report the most shocking ones, like
children being raped, old Grandmothers being raped or a 60-year old Pastor
raping his own Granddaughter for years.Rape is an epidemic in Swaziland, and it is not the only African country
where that is a true statement.

This issue of rape and other Gender Based Violence (GBV) has
really got me worked up. I have started taking photos every time I see an
article in the paper about the topic and have set up meeting with people in
high levels of government, the Royal family and other NGO’s dealing with this
issue.I have nothing to report on
it yet, but please pray for me as I journey down a path to help girls and women
in Swaziland. It’s not okay with me that this is happening.

But not all the news is about rape, we also have a Pastor
here who is teaching his congregants to eat grass, live snakes and even drink
petrol in order to gain power and strength.Last week there was a family killing a donkey and covering
themselves with the blood of the donkey so that they could be cleansed.Then there is the “normal” news
including a message from the Deputy Prime Ministers office announcing that the
country is facing a “Food Shortage Disaster”.

I don’t have a point to this blog really, other than to ask
for prayer for our beloved Swaziland.There is a lot of darkness and evil here, as there is everywhere in the
world.Sin is sin. Darkness is
darkness.But sometimes articles
that claims there are 80,000 witches/warlocks in Swaziland (with a population
of just under one million people) can put ones hair up on end.

Thank you for loyally reading this blog and for the love and
support shown to us each and every week.This would all be too much with your prayers and commitment to be
alongside us.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

On Thursday Ian and I drove a group of people back to
Johannesburg to start their 15 – 30 hour journeys home.We decided to drop them off, run some
errands in Joburg, go out for dinner on a “date night” and then take a
leisurely drive back to Swaziland on Friday.

One of the errands was to look for “Bumbo” seats, which we
need at the El Roi Baby home.Our
team had found them in Swaziland, but they cost around $50 US each, and we need
20 of them so the thought of spending $1,000 US on seats for our babies was
tough.

Ian and I found them for $38 US so I called back to
Swaziland to cancel our order, which, was only minutes from having a deposit
put down!Ian stood at the check
out counter at Baby City and asked to speak with the Manager about getting a
discount for making such a large purchase AND of course share WHO was going to
be using those seats.It’s
quite common here to ask for a discount and it almost always results in a 10%
reduction in price, which would then have taken us to under $35 US per chair.

Just then a lady walked up to Ian and told him that she was
the Sales Representative for the Bumbo competition chair.She said she had overheard his
conversation about the babies in Swaziland and had already called her boss to
see if they could help us out. She explained that their chairs are specifically
designed for an African baby’s shape and they were manufactured in South
Africa, then she gave us the phone number for her boss and said that “Louise”
was waiting for our call.

I called Louise at the Snappi Baby Seat company and she told
me that they would be happy to sell us the seats at her cost and deliver them
to anywhere in Johannesburg!Well,
her cost was $10 US and since their warehouse in Pretoria was on our way home
to Swaziland we said we would stop by and pick them up.Forty minutes later we were at the
Snappi warehouse and decided to buy 40 of them (store 20 in the baby home
storage container) and spent $400 US. Then she gave us another 10 seats for
free for a total of 50.

To review the numbers, we were to spend $1,000 US on 20
seats.We ended up spending $400
US on 50 seats for an average cost of $8 US.

It was a chance meeting at a Baby City store in
Johannesburg.We stopped at
several other stores before we stopped there, but the timing was perfect and we
saved a lot of money.

Yesterday we clearly saw the hand of God and it made me ask
the question, why?Why would God
care about the price of chairs? Isn’t it all His money anyway? We work diligently
to stretch every penny that is donated to us by our donors, but ultimately we
believe that those funds come from Him.But when this story unfolded yesterday we felt God so very close to us
in the van.When we told Louise
the story of some of our children she wept.When we showed her the photos of Deborah’s burned body, she
wept, and gave us more Snappi Baby Chairs.

Was our meeting at Baby City a “chance” encounter?Was our drive through Pretoria a “chance”
drive?I don’t think so.

“What’s
the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never
overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the
last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head!Luke
12:7 The Message Bible

And in other news … we got two more babies this
morning!!A newborn girl named
Patricia and a newborn boy named Ezra, both abandoned by their mothers. Ezra
was left in an empty garbage can/drum and Patricia put in a plastic bag and dumped
in a pit latrine after birth.The
babies were born 3 days apart and both have had positive HIV rapid tests and
are on treatment. They are home at the El Roi Baby home where they will be
loved and cared for.

Ezra

Patricia

El Roi, the God who sees, saw us at Baby City, He saw Louise
in her warehouse and He saw Ezra and Patricia when they were abandoned by their
mothers, and He saw the mother’s in their hopelessness.It’s hard to grasp the depth and
breadth of His love for us, but I know that God really does care about the
little stuff.I hope you do too

Saturday, July 18, 2015

This past week we celebrated two birthdays for two boys who
turned 4-years old. People laugh at me when I refer to them as the “big kids”,
but they are our big kids and they are miracles.

For those of you who don’t know Caleb and Emmanuel, let me
tell you their short life stories.

Caleb was born on July 11, 2011,and he was given to us in a
cardboard box by his own father.

I was not in Swaziland when Helen went to pick up Caleb, but
I am told it was a very traumatic day, for everyone. Caleb’s mother had died of
HIV/AIDS related illness leaving her husband and baby with full-blown AIDS.

The father had no means to provide Caleb with food,
clothing, love or life-saving medication and so Caleb was in and out of the
hospital for malnutrition and HIV/AIDS related illnesses. Some times the father
would stop the medication completely, leaving Caleb resistant to 1st
line medication.The Doctors and
Baylor clinic worked with the hospital Social Worker to find a solution and
that is how Caleb arrived at the El Roi Baby home.

He was a very sick baby when he arrived with lesions all
over his body, raw and open wounds and eyes that were filled with sheer
terror.There were days when Helen
thought that we might lose him to the disease that was trying to steal his
life, but El Roi saw him. With special love, food, medication and praying
without ceasing,his little body returned
from the brink of death caused by the effects of poverty and AIDS.

Caleb will be on his ART (Anti-retroviral treatment) for
life, or until a cure is found or he is healed.It is a twice-daily routine that cannot be missed.While Caleb is a happy and active boy
who celebrated his fourth birthday on July 11th, he is still wearing
clothes that are size 12-18 months (!) and he is on a special high calorie diet
to try to put meat on his bones.

Caleb is loved by all and we give thanks for this little
life.

Emmanuel was born on July 17, 2011 and came to us
malnourished and puffy from Kwashiorkor.

I was living in Swaziland when the Social Welfare office
called about him and had the opportunity to meet his young mother.She was only 16-years old, she already
had one child and was pregnant with another.She came from a very poor family and had been working in
prostitution for several years by that time. The pregnancies were a result of
that life.Emmanuel was a severely
malnourished and sick baby so we had him admitted to the hospital immediately
after we were given custody.He
was almost 1-year old when he came to us, but only had the development of a
4-month old baby. His (ineffective) diaper was a plastic bag.

The mother asked us to take the new baby when he/she was
born, but when the time came she gave birth in an outdoor bus stop and ran away
with the baby and refused to give up the child. We have since learned that she
had a fourth child and then a set of twins!We pray for her and her other five children and we give
thanks that Emmanuel (also known as “Manny” or “Emma”) is with us.

These are only two stories out of the 96 babies who now live
at Project Canaan.I often find
myself saying that each child’s story is worse than the next one, but El Roi
sees them all and has chosen each child to live at Project Canaan. Why only
Emmanuel and not his siblings I do not know, but I trust in the Lord with all
my heart and soul and give thanks for each and every life He sends to us

Saturday, July 11, 2015

I am really sick and tired of newspaper headlines that announce
that yet another young Swazi child has been raped, infected with HIV and/or
pregnant.What is wrong with these
men?

We currently have 15 babies who were born to mothers who were raped between
the ages of 12 and 15.We have
another 15 babies who were found in pit latrines, wrapped in garbage bags or
dumped in a river and we will never know how old those mothers were, but I can
guess that they were all very young, very afraid and very ashamed. Many other babies came from victims of rape, but over the age of 16-years.

It’s happening all over the country and in many cases is being
hidden from the police and Social Welfare so the criminals can continue the
terror that they put on young girls who can’t speak out for fear of being
killed.In so many African
countries (not just Swaziland) a girl’s body is not her own, it belongs to her
father, grandfather, uncles, cousins and brothers. What kind of a man takes joy
in having sex with his own daughter, granddaughter, sister or niece?

In Swaziland it’s hidden under something called “tibitenhlu”, which is a common
expression here used to mean “keep it hidden and in the house/family”.In English we might say “sweep it under
the rug or keeping things hidden behind closed doors”, but tibitenhlu has a more sinister meaning of hiding things within the
family.

This past week I have been directly involved in a case of a
15-year old girl who was raped by her uncle for 4 years (and infected with HIV)
and then for another year by another uncle and impregnated. The second case is
one of a 12-year old who was raped by a family member and is now pregnant at
the age of 13.

I am sick of it.

This will be a short rant, but rapists be warned.I believe that Swazi's will rise up and start reporting you to the police and you will be imprisoned. You can also be assured that there is a special place in hell for you.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

First, may I take a moment to wish all of our American
friends around the world a Happy 4th of July!We are thankful for you and all you do
to help us here in Swaziland.

Now, back to the headline.

This week was like so many others, filled with crazy drives,
crazier conversations and lots of hospital.

We started the week getting our two small Jack Russell
Terriers spayed.When the
veterinarian came out after the surgeries he told us that he had done a
hysterectomy on both of them based on some serious irregularities that he had
only see a few times in his whole career.

Two days later we had to take in one of our Boerboel dogs
(Georgia) for cosmetic eye surgery (I am not kidding).Her eyelashes fold in to her eyes
rather than sticking out to catch dust so she struggled seeing and always had
eye infections.She now can see
much better, but did not AT ALL being locked up for a night while here stitches
started to heal and ate her way through the wooden door (and propane tank)
holding her captive. To quote Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing”, “Nobody puts
Baby in the corner”.

The next few are all human stories.

We got great news this week that two of our babies who had
been on TB treatment were now cleared and finished their medication. That was
awesome and life-giving news!

And the highlight for dozens of Project Canaan workers this
week (in the medical world) was the arrival of Dr. Stuart Coe and his 17-year
old daughter Kenna. They came from Alpharetta, GA to practice dentistry and
spent Monday – Friday working 7AM to 6PM to help people with major dental
needs.

Under less than ideal circumstances including equipment
malfunction, daily power outages, communication challenges and some very
complicated cases, they managed to extract 31 teeth, fill 59 teeth, take 80
x-rays on THE MOST AMAZING PORTABLE X-RAY MACHINE THAT WAS LOANED TO STUART and
do the equivalent of $33,000 US in dental work (that is R396,000 in free dental
care!).

All in all it’s been a great week.This afternoon we expect 20 students from Changhua Senior
High School in Taiwan to join us for the weekend.We look forward to having our friend Mr. Lewis Lu back
again.

Live from Swaziland … I must rush to the highway where the
students bus just broke down.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

This week we picked up a baby from the hospital who had been
there for a month.Today is
her FIRST birthday, but her first 365
days have not been good.She
weighed 4.86 KG (10.7 pounds) when we
got her two days ago.Stop and
think about that for a minute.

Happy 1st Birthday Princess. Welili and Helen had to hold her up, but she got her first cake!

In addition, she is HIV positive, has Tuberculosis, can't sit or crawl and was
in the hospital for severe malnutrition.Her mother is 19-years old and also has a 3-year old who lives with the
Grandmother.The young mother
couldn’t care for the baby and begged the Doctor/nurses/social workers to find
someone who would take her baby (and take some of her problems away).

Social Welfare did their investigation, court orders were
signed and we were called to pick up the child.Her name is Princess.

When we went to pick the baby up “coincidentally” Anthony
Mutua (a Project Canaan Supervisor who is currently studying nursing in
Mbabane) was Interning at that very hospital and met us at the front door. He
was able to help with language, care instruction and details that the nurses
wanted us to know upon discharge.

As we left the hospital we passed an old man and woman
sitting outside the ambulance entrance area. He was in a broken wheelchair and
she was sitting on the ground.Princess’ mom was walking out with us and she greeted the couple as we
walked by.“Coincidentally”, they
were her very own Grandparents, and they live in Sigceneni , the community
right next to Project Canaan.In
fact, they are Baby Princess’ Great Grandparents!We discovered that they had been sitting outside for the
past 24 hours, hoping that someone would give them a ride home or money to take
public transportation.The
temperature dropped to 10C (50F) the night before and this couple sat through
it, hoping for a good Samaritan to come by and help. The man is 90-years old
and his young wife is 67-years old.

I have masked their faces to maintain their privacy (sometimes my blog is posted in the national newspaper here). The Grandfather was trying to show me the tube coming out of his stomach when I was trying to take the family photo.

My little car was full with 3 adults, one baby and $900 of
children’s clothes that I had just purchased with Sharla and Scott Miller so we
were not in a position to drive them home, but there is no way we could leave
them there shivering.

“Coincidently” at that very moment a van pulled up beside us
and it had a sign that said GoodSamaritan 911 on the
side.I immediately asked the
driver what GoodSamaritan 911 was and he said it was
a private ambulance service that had just started.I asked him how much it would cost to take this man in the
wheelchair and his wife to Sigceneni and he told me R450 ($37 US).SOLD!I pulled out my Compassion Purse, the Scotts handed me some
money and between the two we hired the private ambulance to take this poor
couple home.

An hour later the ambulance driver called me to say that
they had been delivered safe and sound.

Every Saturday I have a list of things for Anthony to do
when he comes home from Nursing School for the weekend. Most of is work in the
community surrounding Project Canaan.Today Anthony was to take Alyssa Yount and her mom Debbie out for a
homestead visit. Anthony asked one of our workers to choose a family since he
would not be home until Saturday.I then asked him to go and check on the old couple after he did that
homestead visit and take them some food.As I am writing this blog I got a call from Chris Cheek (who went with
Anthony and the ladies).Guess
what?“Coincidentally” the
homestead that was chosen by another worker is the homestead of the
Grandparents, and it is the homestead where Baby Princess’ older sister lives
with their Grandmother.

Back to Baby Princess.Unfortunately, when we go her home we discovered she had a fever of 41C
(105.7F), she was severely dehydrated and she had pneumonia.“Coincidently” we have a Pediatric
nurse (Camille Vincent) here volunteering for 7 weeks and she was able to move
in to action and put an IV in the tiny baby and start antibiotics and
re-hydration.Camille saved us an
emergency drive back to the hospital and perhaps even saved Princess’ life.

Every day we see miracles here, and the “coincidences” are
too many to write about.But today
I thought I would share just one small story of what I believe is not
coincidence, but the mighty hand of God.

Live from Swaziland … I believe in God-incidences, not
coincidences.

Janine

PS – Did I mention that when I asked Chris Cheek to go with Anthony to
visit the Grandfather and Mother in Sigceneni today I sent her the photo of the
couple so that she would know who she was looking for. Chris texted me
immediately to say that she had actually MET that old couple in 2013 when she
first came to Swaziland, and then she sent me this photo of her and the couple
from 2013.The hand of God.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

On March 3, 2015 a woman gave birth to a baby boy, put him
in a plastic bag and dumped him on the side of a river.We don’t know how long the newborn was
there, but it was long enough for river crabs to eat through the bag and
through his tender skin to make a huge hole in his bottom.The wound looked as if rats had
burrowed a hole in his tiny body.

Eventually a passerby heard the cries of the child and
called the police. The police took the baby to the hospital were a surgeon
quickly attended to the wound and did a “double barrel” colostomy (surgery #1) to
help the wound heal without infection.

A week or so later we were called to come and pick up the
child, now known as “Baby River”.He came to the El Roi Baby home and under the care of our amazing
medical and caregiver team his wound was healed in a few short weeks. He was
returned to the hospital to have his colostomy reversed (surgery #2).

That surgery seemed to go as planned, but then something went
terribly wrong. I will do my best to explain to the best of my knowledge and
ability (and lack of medical education) what happened in the days and weeks
after that.

·The reversal did not heal and there was a leak
in to his abdomen.

·Emergency surgery was done (surgery #3), his
belly opened up and abdomen cleaned.At that time they attempted to complete the colostomy reversal again.

·More infection came and another emergency
surgery (surgery #4) was done to find the leak, clean the abdomen and put in a
new colostomy (colostomy #2) to reduce infection and help with the healing.

·Immediately following that surgery we decided to
move the baby by ambulance to a private hospital in Manzini.

·Baby’s overall health continued to fail and
within a couple of days his oxygen levels dropped to 40%, the infection had
spread to his bloodstream (sepsis) and early one morning he crashed.

·The Doctors sprung in to action, did CPR and
intubated him (put him on a ventilator to breath for him) as his lungs had
fluid around them and he couldn’t breathe.

·Abdominal stitches were removed to allow his
intestines and stomach to come out so that the pressure was taken off his lungs
(not counted as a surgery) and fluid from lungs was removed with a syringe.

·The next day surgery #5 took place and the
surgeon found two perforations in his bowel, which is why stool was leaking
into his abdomen for five days.

·During that surgery the perforations were fixed
and a new ostomony (#3 on the other side of his abdomen) was created. His intestines,
stomach and liver were left on the outside his body and they remained there for
2-3 days (sorry, I just couldn’t post that photo)

·Surgery #6 the surgeon put the organs back in to
his abdomen, but didn’t close him up.

·Surgery #7 the surgeon put all of his organs
back in and closed him up.

·Once he was able to breathe ventilator removed
as he was breathing on his own and he was moved to the ward.

·TWO SHORT WEEKS later … he came home. That was
today.

All the nurses wanted to get a photo with the little miracle baby.

Thank you Dr. Kunene, Dr. Okello and Brooke Sleeper for ALL you have done.

In summary, River is now 3.5 months old. He has been dumped by his mother, eaten by crabs, has had 7 surgeries, 3 colostomies and is a miracle for the whole world to see.

What’s next?

He gets lots of TLC for the next few months.At that point the #3 ostomy will be
reversed (surgery #8).A few
months after that, the #2 colostomy will also be reversed (surgery #9).

Thank you all for your prayers, your love, your emails and
your financial support.We will
have the final “bill” on Monday, but we know that we owe many, many thousands
of US dollars to the hospital and staff who saved this little ones life.We are incredibly thankful that there
is such a hospital in Swaziland and people who work hand in hand with to do
what some days seems impossible.We ALL saw the hand of God on this baby’s life, over and over
again.There is no question that
El Rofi saved this child and we look forward to watching him grow.

Today, I am asking if you can help us pay his hospital
bill.If you can give, please
do.